Theory of action for resourcing professional growth
Journal of Professional Capital and Community
ISSN: 2056-9548
Article publication date: 19 December 2018
Issue publication date: 8 January 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational characteristics and systemic structures that prioritize and resource teacher professional growth and collaboration are central to the role of districts in developing the ongoing professional growth of teachers. Yet, a key challenge facing districts is a lack of existing systemic structures to support professional growth to foster large-scale instructional improvement. The purpose of this paper is to explore how an organizational resourcing model might be used to build districts’ collective capacity to implement the cornerstones of a professional growth system.
Design/methodology/approach
An explanatory case study, in the context of a partnership between a university-based intermediary and three California school districts, is used to illustrate how districts applied a theory of resourcing as a sustainable capacity-building approach.
Findings
The findings of this paper demonstrate that, to varying degrees, participating districts were able to enact elements of professional growth systems through a recursive interaction of schema shifts, resource use, and intentional actions, supporting a practice-based theory of organizational resourcing. While university intermediaries can both mediate and enable the success of locally designed professional growth systems through a supported resourcing model, the key to sustaining change efforts are cross-role organizational schema shifts and actions taken to operationalize underutilized existing, latent resources.
Research limitations/implications
Case studies do have limitations including not being able to make generalizations from the findings and conclusions.
Originality/value
The corpus of research on educational reform and organizational learning in educational research situates the school as the organizational unit of change. This study contributes to the research by elevating districts as the lever of organizational change for resourcing teacher professional growth systems.
Keywords
Citation
O’Hara, S., Bookmyer, J., Martin, R. and Newton, R. (2019), "Theory of action for resourcing professional growth", Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 52-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-02-2018-0006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited